My oil pan stripped out tonight while doing a simple oil change. 180º thread segments were coming out with the oil. We couldn’t get the drain plug to thread… and when I finally did – that wrench just kept turning and turning and turning and turning.

I’m frustrated because I didn’t HAVE to change the oil. It was probably fine. I just wanted to make sure the car was in top shape before the event at Turner. No drifting for me this weekend.

Ugh.

The electronic complexity that lies beneath my car’s tattered metal has plagued and taunted me since I started drifting it. After a bigger headache than I ever thought possible with this car, I was FINALLY able to completely, 110% without a doubt disable the ABS/DSC without throwing the car into limp-mode. BUT HOW?!

I pulled one teeny tiny li’l wheel speed sensor from the rear of the car. That’s it. I’ve been told that pulling all four sensors works on E36 cars, but the E46 models have a stricter set of electronics, so when the car doesn’t get a speed reading, it declares that as a problem worthy of limp-mode. I encountered the same issue when I pulled both of the rear sensors (leaving the fronts). The trick here, is to only pull one. That way the car still pulls a reading from the other side, and just registers the pulled sensor as a fault… keeping the car revving like a champ.

I did hours and hours of research on this subject, and found many people asking how to fully disable ABS/DSC, but never got a straight answer on how to do it. People seemed more content ridiculing those asking the question than pondering a useful solution. Hopefully this trick will help those that need to disable it, but keep in mind – I am not liable for any action taken based on this post. I needed to do this for my track car, and I would not recommend this for ANY street car. In fact, if I could have kept ABS functioning, and still keep use of my hydraulic e-brake, I would have done so. ABS has saved my ass quite a few times – even on the track.

This effectively closes the chapter on my lengthy saga on this subject. I can now use my hydraulic e-brake free and clear of limp-mode. The e-brake works AMAZING. It will take some acclimation to driving without ABS, but I’m sure I will get used to it. One thing is for sure… I can’t wait to use this e-brake at Road Atlanta in the spring!

I came across some old silk Metallica wall-hangings I had in storage, and decided to have a go at wrapping the back cushions for my Sparco Evos. I wrapped the driver-side cushion with a Pushead piece. It was the only one I didn’t mind slicing up, because I couldn’t stand the (newer sans-serif) Metallica logo on it. Because I didn’t want to cut up any of my other Pushead wall-hangings, the passenger-side wound up with the electric chair from Ride the Lightning.

I almost got the e46 impounded this evening while I was following the break-in procedure for the new differential in the empty parking lot across the street from my neighborhood. I guess a black car driving around (NOT DRIFTING) in a figure eight for 30 minutes just seemed down-right illegal to several concerned citizens, who called me in to the police. Thankfully, the officer let me off with a severe warning, and allowed me to go park the car back in my garage… where it stays 99% of the time (the other 1% being when it goes on the trailer to be taken to the track).

I was pretty upset that people felt like I was doing something wrong, and called the police about it. I mean… in the grand scheme of things, that car was on it’s best behavior compared to what it is normally doing. Ol’ girl is capable far worse things that would probably give those ‘concerned citizens’ seizures and heart-attacks. Driving between 5-10mph in a figure eight hardly fits the bill to be worthy of concern.

Such a team effort here. Austin Lawless sourced the new pumpkin via Stricktly German… Matt Foerst got the old unit disassembled, and re-shimmed & installed in the new housing… and David Jones & Wes Pitts dropped by to help get the pumpkin bolted back up to the rear subframe! Mega MEGA thanks to all that helped get this mess sorted out! It is too awesome to have this diff back in the car!!!

I drained and cracked open the diff assembly… sure enough – shattered ring and pinion. The KAAZ looks/seems fine… both output flanges still lock when turned. One of the carrier bearings looks like it could be replaced. The ring gear is consistently shattered all the way around.

I managed to fish out a solid bit of metal chunks, slivers, and shavings from the pumpkin.
Have I ever mentioned how bad differential gear oil smells?
Seriously. DISGUSTING.

I got underneath the car this evening, and with the help of David Jones… we got the diff assemble pulled from the rear-subframe. I can’t find my drain pan anywhere to relieve the pumpkin of it’s gear oil… so I will have to wait to crack the diff cover off and see what kind of carnage awaits inside. From the sounds of it… I don’t think it will be very pretty.

During the big standing burnout finale at the Motorsport Nationals Drift Demo, the car had a catastrophic mechanical failure. It sounded like I shattered the ring and pinion. The car wouldn’t drive under it’s own power, and had to be pushed off track. I finally got the car off the trailer yesterday, and pushed into the garage where I promptly put it on jackstands. The driveshaft spins when the car is in gear… so it isn’t the transmission. I have to get the diff cover off to be 100% sure… but it does look like it is the ring and pinion.

I just pray it isn’t the KAAZ.
[fingers crossed]

I picked up some $20 smoked corners off eBay to get a matching set back on the car after my collision with Austin. Pictured here with the OEM corner… these aren’t too much darker – but just about right. I got the strobe lights installed easy… and they look pretty sick on the car!

Still on the hunt to resolve my hydro e-brake/ABS/limp-mode issue in the e46… I took some advice given to me on ZipTied… and found a local shop that had an Autologic. I was told that using Autologic, you can hand program the ABS out of the DME without tripping faults. A quick Google search led me to Munich Motorsport.

They had to download the software from my car, and send it to Autologic UK to have the programming done. Unfortunately for myself… keying out the ABS cannot actually be done without tripping faults and throwing the car into limp-mode. Why is this so damn hard to do? I need a functioning hydraulic e-brake… without freaking out my computer OR aggravating the ABS pumps. UGH.

The good news (and the real reason for this post) is… the crew over at Munich Motorsport are SUPER nice, and extremely accommodating. I really have to recommend them to anyone with a BMW or Volvo that needs work done. They really went out of their way to help me… and even though we weren’t successful – Matt had some suggestions on how to disable the ABS without freaking the car into another seizure.